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What happens though when the miles start piling up from all the driving and the steering starts to feel like it’s not as crisp as the factory’s original specifications? When the performance you expect starts to deteriorate there’s one way to recapture its original precision. Recently, we made a trip to Saginaw, Michigan, to stop by Turn One High Performance Steering Systems to see just how they breathe life back into a tired C4 Corvette rack-and-pinion while infusing their years of experience into its rebuild...

“Turn One is excited to partner with the NSTA Top Speed Modified Tour this season,” added Jeff Roethlisberger, Jr., Marketing Director for Turn One. “We have been looking for opportunities to reach the grassroots racer and show them the value of our products. The future of the Tour is very bright and we felt it would be the best place for us to get involved in short track racing and grow our brand.”

Turn One High Performance Steering Systems has produced an insightful and very helpful FAQ section on their website to address some of the common concerns. Plumbing a power steering system is just like any other engine-driven accessory, it has it’s own needs and troubleshooting tricks. By keeping an eye on the issues outlined by Turn One you can arm yourself with the information necessary to be successful in your project.

That part about the steering rack? That's all true. Truth be told, neither Greg Lovell nor I can remember where our existing steering rack came from (it was either the floor of his shop or on the car when we got it) and it not only leaked a significant amount of fluid – which was remarkable considering the fact that it felt as if it were filled with gravel instead of Royal Purple – but the stock tie rod ends were so bad you could literally give 20-degrees of steering input before it transmitted your request to the wheels. And it was a shame too, we've had this bum rack installed since day one and our modified Turn One power steering pump, the very pump responsible for keeping fluid cool and the juices flowing to the rack, hadn't really been put to good use supplying the leaking rock-crusher. So, it was a real pleasure this month to be able to send the rack to the very same company, Turn One, to have their in-house specialists rebuild our aging rack and turn it into a precision piece capable of turning our wheel inputs into wheel output with ease.

But these days we like to drive our cars, and we like horsepower (insert Tim Taylor man-grunt here). Turn One’s Jeff Roethlisberger says, “When you start driving your car faster and you’re revving the engine higher, your steering pump works harder and the temperatures can rise.” That’s when you find out that your off-the-shelf fluid starts to bubble up, or squeeze out of the reservoir and leave a slick coating on the rest of the pump.

Unquestionably, steering is one of the most important aspects of any motorsport, especially with road racing, and one of the key components in obtaining a tight steering feel with hydraulic steering is the power steering pump.

There are effectively four straight forward power steering setups you can run on an LS swapped car and I’ve now tried three of the four. With my most recent setup, I finally have a version I’m truly happy with so I wanted to share the details. This was written from a perspective of an FC but 99% applies to FD as well.

Maintenance? Wear and tear? Random leaks? Tires?! You mean to tell me building and running a track day toy isn't just about dive bombing GT500s and getting point-byes from guys in overpriced "super cars?" Ugh, this sucks! Well, let's get the Killer up on the lift and find out just how much 500-plus miles of abuse has done.

Taking care of the power-steering pump is a pretty easy fix—it's simply replaced with a new one. There's no such remedy for the rack-and-pinion unit, however, because it's no longer manufactured. Options, then, are limited to scouring Craigslist and salvage yards for a used part or having the original unit rebuilt. Only a few companies around the country perform the procedure, and we recently stopped by Saginaw, Michigan's Turn One to see how it was done.